The present invention relates to golf accessories and more particularly to a device for detecting a missing golf club within a golf bag.
Almost every golfer has experienced the loss of a golf club on a golf course. This most frequently happens when a golfer retrieves two or more clubs from his or her bag and takes the club to the site of the ball and in the course of making the shot simply drops the one or two clubs not being used in an area adjacent to the site of the ball. After making the shot, the golfer inadvertently forgets about the unused clubs and moves to the next shot. This, of course, means that the golfer has left behind one or more clubs.
It is true that in many cases, within the same round, the golfer will realize that one or more clubs are missing from his or her bag. When that is realized, the golfer will backtrack and search for the lost club or clubs. Many times this in itself can be a difficult task because the golfer does not recall where the lost clubs where left. In short it can become a time-consuming and frustrating endeavor. This is especially a problem when the golf course is crowded and there is a pressure to maintain a fairly rapid pace of play.
Unfortunately, many golf clubs that are inadvertently left on the fairway or around the green are discovered by others and are not returned to the owner or to the clubhouse. These clubs are lost forever and with the cost of golf clubs being what they are today, that is no small loss.
Therefore, there has been and continues to be a need for a device or system that will continue to monitor a golfer""s bag and determine if any one of a set of golf clubs is missing, and if so to appraise the golfer of that fact.
The present invention relates to a device that monitors the number of golf clubs in a golf bag. More particularly, based on a certain number of clubs constituting a set or forming a group of clubs within the golf bag, the device functions to identify or detect each golf club of the set or group. If the device is unable to detect one or more clubs of the set or group, then it sounds an alarm, either audible or visual, appraising the golfer that the set or group is not complete or missing at least one club.
In one embodiment, the device comprises a transceiver that is operatively connected to a controller. Further, there is provided a series of sensors or sensor tags, with each sensor tag having a unique identify and secured to one golf club of the group. The device, through the transceiver, emits one or more signals aimed at registering with the sensor tags associated with the golf clubs. In one particular embodiment, a single signal is emitted and the single signal is adapted to register with each sensor tag. Upon registration with the sensor tag, the sensor tag itself emits a responsive signal that uniquely identifies that sensor tag and its associated golf club. That responsive signal is directed back to the transceiver where the data associated with the responsive signal is directed to the controller. There the controller compares the responsive signals with a stored list of inventory clubs and is able to determine if one or more of the set or group of clubs of the inventory is missing.
In another embodiment, the transceiver may direct a series of signals, with each signal being uniquely coded to register with only one sensor tag. In this case, the registration with a sensor tag spurs a responsive signal from the sensor tag that is transmitted back to the transceiver. This responsive signal also uniquely identifies the sensor tag and its associated golf club.
In another embodiment of the present invention, the controller is programmed to conduct an inventory of clubs during an initialization step. That is, the controller is operative to scan the entire set or group of clubs and determine which clubs are in the group or set. This inventory of clubs is then stored in memory. Thereafter, in detecting for a missing club, the controller is operative to search or monitor for each club of the inventoried list. If the device is unable to detect each club of the inventoried list, then the device appraises the golfer that there is one or more missing clubs from the inventoried list.
Other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent and obvious from a study of the following description and the accompanying drawings which are merely illustrative of such invention.